After Cooper Connolly scored an unbeaten 72 off 44 balls, Punjab, last season's runners-up, achieved the target of 163 runs with 165 runs to spare with 5 balls to spare.
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Cooper Connolly's brilliant batting has given Punjab Kings a winning start in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The team defeated Gujarat Titans by 3 wickets in their first match on Tuesday.
Connolly scored an unbeaten 72 off 44 balls as last season's runners-up Punjab chased down the target of 163 with 165 runs to spare. Connolly hit 5 fours and a six. Punjab hit more sixes than fours in the match. He hit 6 fours and 14 sixes in his innings.
Priyansh Arya, who hit a six off Mohammed Siraj in the first over, was caught by Kagiso Rabada in the second over. Another opener, Prabhsimran Singh, scored 37 runs. He hit 1 four and 4 sixes in 24 balls. Captain Shreyas Iyer hit 2 sixes but was dismissed for 18 runs off 11 balls. Punjab was in trouble after Nehal Badhera (3), Shashank Singh (4) and Marcus Stoinis (0) were dismissed. Marco Janssen scored 11 runs off 5 balls including 1 six. Gujarat's Prasidh Krishna took 3 wickets for 29 runs in 4 overs. Earlier, Punjab restricted Gujarat to 162 runs for the loss of 6 wickets with the excellent bowling of Yuzvendra Chahal and Vijay Kumar Vaishak. Three Gujarat players scored 25 or more. But no one could score more than captain Shubman Gill's 39 runs. Gujarat, who batted openly on a flat wicket at the beginning, scored 54 runs for the loss of 1 wicket in the first power-play.
Gill, who was dismissed while sweeping Chahal's ball, hit 6 fours in 27 balls. Another opener Sai Sudarshan was dismissed for 13 runs. English batsman Jos Buttler scored 38 runs. Coming in at number three, he hit 3 fours and 2 sixes in the 16th over. 14 of the 33 balls Buttler faced were dots. Glenn Phillips scored 25 runs in 17 balls, including 1 four and a six.
Gujarat's run was curtailed in the 6th to 11th overs and the team could only score 42 runs in that order. Washington Sundar was dismissed for 18 in 16 balls and Shahrukh Khan for 4 runs. Rahul Tewaita scored 11 runs unbeaten with 1 four in 10 balls. Vaishak bowled good lengths and troubled the Gujarat batsmen with short balls. He took 3 wickets in 4 overs for 33 runs. Chahal took 2 wickets in 4 overs for 28 runs. Jansen also bowled well and took 1 wicket in 4 overs for 20 runs.
